Civitas appoints Mark Iwicki as CEO

Mark Iwicki has joined the Parkinson's focused biopharma Civitas Therapeutics as president and CEO.

Iwicki takes over from the company's co-founder Glenn Batchelder, who will remain on the board of directors.

Tim Nelson, chairman of the board of directors, highlighted Iwicki's previous experience launching products in the pulmonary and central nervous system (CNS) as the company looks to advance its investigational drug CVT-301 for Parkinson's disease.

Nelson said: “Mark's proven ability to lead high performance teams from early development through commercialisation will help achieve the Civitas mission to build a robust and sustainable pipeline around the Arcus platform.”

Arcus is a dry powder and device combination that allows patients to inhale a large, precise dose of medicine regardless of the flow rate of inhalation.

Iwicki said: “It is a great privilege to join the Civitas team during this pivotal period and fully capitalise on the unique capabilities of the Arcus technology.”

Prior to joining Civitas, Iwicki was CEO of Blend Therapeutics having previously served as CEO of Sunovion Pharmaceuticals.

Sunovion was created after the acquisition of Iwicki's former company Sepracor by Dainippon Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals. He was chief commercial officer at Sepracor, launching three products.

Prior to this, he served as senior VP and head of cardiovascular at Novartis. He also has experience at AstraZeneca and Merck & Co.